For the books that need to be read - I will fight technology!

I've been having some website issues lately to the point where I'm coming back to my trusty blog to regroup. So where can I go form here? I have books relying on me to find homes for them and send them out into the world to be read...

The journey has been a long and varied one:

My books have been in book shops...

                                                                       and in library displays...

I bought bright orange envelopes - to send the books out into to the world in style.

I knitted sheep as quirky promotion...

...it worked, so I knitted more sheep.

I knitted some cats - the ginger one, not the tabby!

But most of all I've sat or stood behind my books at book signings and sold direct to readers.

...and played around with book displays.
                                               From books going on holiday...

...to a horse display, (yes I knitted the horse and knotted the hay net)

to promote my latest book.

So you see - I am determined - and I will launch my books out into the world!

#LostinaBook #rummage4words 

Belle ex racehorse ...just horsing around

Happy Birthday Belle - you now star in a book, though I'm sure your birthday hack was more important to you today.  

And what an auspicious day to publish a book about an ex racehorse, when many of her kind are running in the Grand National - I hope they all have a safe race and go on to have a full life after the racetrack.  

#racehorse #LostinaBook

New book available soon

 

Publication date set for 14th April - which is Belle's birthday - I wonder if she knows what a special lady she is...

Belle is an ex racehorse, but she doesn't know what that means. She was born to race, so what now…?

Maybe she's a jumper, a dressage horse or an explorer… she still has the instinct to race whenever she gets the chance; but maybe just horsing around could be fun too.

#exracehorse #LostinaBook 

Read for pleasure this summer holiday - forget targets just read

The summer holidays is the perfect time to read a book, just because you want to, no pressure, no reading list or targets, just read because you’re absorbed in a story and can’t wait to find out what happens next, or just to escape into a fantasy world for a while.

I’ll never forget the summer when reading finally clicked for me – the ground work had been done, I’d read my share of reading books, but it was still hard work – but then , one summer holidays I became completely absorbed in The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton. I read it every spare moment, even in the car. Suddenly I was being told to put my book down and go and play, which I’m sure I did – at the end of the chapter...

The seeds had been sown at an early age, as I’d always been read to, but that summer was when my imagination finally flew – I could read what I wanted, when I wanted – there was no looking back.

So now I write the kind of books that I hope will spark imaginations, and make children want to read, just for the joy of it.

Doodle Mayhem is a fun read, which came about when I read an article about not letting your characters take over – well that just sent my imagination into overdrive, why shouldn’t a character take over? And how can you stop them anyway?  I find that once a character starts to speak, they take on a life of their own, and then there’s no knowing what is going to happen...

So step into a world where drawings come alive, meet Eric’s doodles Iver No-Idea and his dog HB as they cause their own brand of trouble.

Doodle Mayhem – the first in the Doodle series - Buy now for the special summer offer of just £3.50 P&P free

Eric would rather doodle than write a story, but when the words start to disappear off the page in front of him, and his doodle starts talking to him, he thinks he must be dreaming.

Eric's doodle has come to life, and he's getting bored; he jumps into Miranda's story, where he gets attacked by a rubber, then he's blown off his feet when Natasha sneezes. Miss Roper is getting angrier by the second. How will Eric ever finish his story, when his doodle just wants to have fun, and create havoc? 

 

#LostinaBook

Local author at Clifton Library in York 7th July

Lost in a Book goes mobile tomorrow at the coffee morning and story time at Clifton Library in York. There'll be books, there'll be sheep and a few Basils... what's a Basil? Well why don't you come down and find out... 

But I'm Not Sleepy

Well I really couldn't have predicted what happened next...

 Well I really couldn't have predicted what happened next...

In the middle of my promotion for A Face Full of Snow... sheep started selling...!

That's right, so I ended up doing some emergency sheep knitting, to ship off to Devon. Then another order came in, but don't panic, this one was for a knitting pattern for someone to knit their own sheep... phew...

Anyway the upshot is, I'm getting a little flock of sheep knitted up to avert more sheep emergencies, whilst really hoping that a few more people will buy patterns...

So what is it about sheep that people can't resist...?

...and should I really be doing another book about sheep...?

Or maybe I should just keep knitting... 

 

Why an author is like a swan...

A swan will sit serenely on the water, gliding along effortlessly - but all the effort is going on out of sight, where the legs are doing all the work... Now I'm not saying that an author at a book signing is madly kicking their legs under the table, but, a lot of work has gone on behind the scenes to get to the point where they can sit or stand there for the day, with all the time in the world to engage in conversation with total strangers...

It all starts with a spark of imagination... and then there's:

• Writing the book
• Illustrating the book
• Publishing
• Printing
• Gathering display stands, a table cloth and lights
• Getting everything to the fair
• Displaying the books
• Hiding behind the books   
• Engaging total strangers in conversation and sharing a passion for books

Behind the scenes at Lost in a Book

Lost in a Book gets festive - because babies need books too

Getting festive: Christmas Quiet / Busy book

 The new festive busy book has a Christmas tree on the cover.

 ...and a furry Rudolf with a shiny button red nose.

 There's a snowman and a Christmas stocking - bursting with glossy ribbons...

 A Christmas pudding that's a flap - hiding a secret...

 All bound up in a soft book by Lost in a Book. Because babies need books too.

Christmas fair - Book singing - York

New date added:

York's Guild Hall - this Saturday 8th November I'll be at a Christmas fair in the heart of York, signing books and encouraging everyone to get Lost in a Book this Christmas. What could be better than snuggling up on a winters evening with a book...?

Getting children into reading is one of the best things you can do for their future. Sewing the seeds of a love of books - so why not start up a new tradition and give them books this Christmas.

Christmas fairs, book signings and sunny days in Yorkshire

The Santa hat was on on Saturday for the first Christmas fair of the season - I even had a mince pie to get me in the spirit...

What a beautiful start to the day - parking by the river...

Nov 1st and not a cloud in the sky in Wetherby

I've got quite a full table 

Still no sheepdog to keep those sheep in order, but there is something new coming soon...

Books for babies, quiet / busy books

I'm always trying to find ways of getting books into little hands, but some parents take some convincing that their offspring won't destroy books. So I looked into writing a board book, as always my imagination took over and I soon had several fun ideas, but was thwarted by the high cost of producing board books apart from on a massive scale... so here's the plan...

Quiet / Busy Books these fun books were recently brought to my attention, and that was it - the sewing box was soon emptied onto the kitchen table and lots of colours and textures were stitched together to make my first quiet / busy book:

And in case you were wondering what became of this book - it went straight into the little hands of a very special little boy... but the good news is that there are going to be more where this one came from...

Coming soon from Lost in a Book - some very special books for babies. 

Books are tactile, would you rather pick up a book or order online?

Books are tactile - it's the reason so many readers resist the cheap ebooks in favour of sitting down with a physical book - ink on paper, it's what we're used to. The feel and smell of a new book, or for some, the feel and smell of an old book, the familiar feel of turning the pages.

So is the same true of the buying experience? Do people prefer to go into an actual bookshop and pick up books, to going online and ordering a book?  Now I know book sales online are massive, brought about by bargain prices, so it seems clear that people will change their shopping habits to save money, but isn't it supposed to be about convenience too - why then is it so hard for the small online bookshops to get a toe in the door of online book sales? Maybe readers do still prefer to pick up a book before they buy it, this certainly seems the case with my books, where I can sell easily to customers at craft fairs and book signings, where they can pick up a book, and talk to the author, and will even seek me out again at future events to buy more books, but still seem reluctant to buy from my website...

Or maybe I'm just missing something, and online sales are just another of my many learning curves that I need to get beat...

Author rambling about social media

So here I am, living the dream and dreaming about making a living from it...

I've done the rounds of craft fairs, where all too often there isn't much craft going on so much as buying things in and selling them on. So where have all the craft people gone? Maybe they're all too busy making things to stand about and sell them at fairs... certainly a craft fair seems to be an opportunity to have a sit down, and I have even done a bit of writing at a fair, once or twice when the event was really quiet. But the trouble with writing is that it's a solitary occupation and if I start writing at  a fair I'm quite likely to just zone out and not notice if anyone stops to talk to me or take an interest in my books.

So surely the internet is the answer - making use of social media seems to be the thing to do, but it does seem full of people after their own ends or following to get followed, until we all seem to be following each other around in endless herds asking for likes - how can you ask someone to like something anyway...? You put it in front of people and they either like it or they don't... or am i missing something?

Views anyone...?

The Great Yorkshire Show, gentle giants, storms and all things woolly...

 It's a busy time in Yorkshire, with the Great Yorkshire Show in full swing. I was there on Tuesday, sat on the grass banks waiting for the heavy horses to come into the main arena, as heavy clouds gathered overhead... The storm clouds went wild, sending everyone rushing for cover and purchasing anything waterproof - my daughter and I totally carried off the kiddies rain ponchos in fetching doggy print.

Luckily the heavy horses were calmer than the weather, they're such gentle giants.

The shopping was good too, so much more fun than chain store shopping, from kitchen knives and an olive wood chopping board, to some beautiful artwork they had it all covered.

So my hands were pretty full of shopping by the time I made my way to the sheep pens, trying to find some sheep who looked like my characters from But I'm Not Sleepy. There were some funky looking sheep, and I think the ones most like mine were tucked away in the sheep shearing pen, but I did find these:

I wonder what this sheep is trying to say...?
"A up Pearl, sit up, we're having our photo taken..."

Knitted sheep, adding a woolly dimension to story time... 

“We’re not trouble makers are we Pearl?”

“No Hilda, certainly not.”

“It’s just that we’ve been rounded up so many times our heads are spinning.”

“Yes spinning.”

“Spinning into wool?” asked Lucy.

“No… spinning into a flock of dizzy sheep,” said Downboy.

(from But I'm Not Sleepy)